Port of Ningbo targets 8-million-TEU cargo volume by 2010

Port of Ningbo targets 8-million-TEU cargo volume by 2010    The Chinese port of Ningbo, located near the mouth of the Yangtze River, aims to handle an annual throughput of 8 million TEUs by 2010, as it continues to expand on the back of a rapid growth in cargo volumes.
   “The volume of containers has drastically increased year by year with an average annual growth of 45 percent for the past 10 years,” said Li Linghong, director and senior economist of the Ningbo Port Authority.
   The port official said that Ningbo handled 1.86 million TEUs in 2002 and that its box volume is expected to exceed 2.6 million TEUs this year —    representing another annual growth of about 40 percent.
   “Recently, the top 20 regular liner companies in the world have set up agencies in Ningbo port,” Li said. Some 85 container shipping lines now call at the Chinese port.
   The port of Ningbo will invest more than 10 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the next eight years to build terminals. Two container terminals are scheduled to be completed by 2007, bringing 13 new berths with a total length of over 4 kilometers.
   By 2006, the port will provide a container handling capacity of about 5 million TEUs. This capacity will double to 10 millions TEUs by the year 2010, Li said.
   Li described Ningbo as “an emergent port” with deep-water berths. “Currently, many steamship liners make scheduled calls at Ningbo port with 6,000-plus TEU container vessels,” he said.
   The water depth alongside the existing container terminals ranges between 13.5 meters and 15 meters — more than the neighboring and draft-restricted port of Shanghai.
   Li said that Ningbo’s port tariffs, set by the government, are similar to Shanghai’s.
   In 2002, the port of Ningo recorded a total cargo throughput of 156 million tons, placing it second among Chinese ports, after Shanghai.